West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

lney are carrleu lO lHc WdicHouoe,
where an empty crate is given the
picker in exchange for 4 full one.
Thus equipped and improved, the
Sackett marsh is valued at 81 80 600.
Thirteen thousand barrels have been
harvested from this great farm in a
single season. The selling price in
the Chicago market varies, in differ
ent seasons, from SIS to SIC per bar
rel. There are several other marshes
of various size in the vicinity.
The picking season usually begins
about September 1st, and from that
time until October lst the marshes
swarm with men, women and chill
dren, ranging in age from q to 50
years; made up from almost every
nationality under the sun. Bohe-
mans and Polanders. furnish the
majority of the working force, while
Germans, Irish, Swedes, Norwe-
gians, Danes, Negroes, Indians and
Americans contribute to the molly
contingent They come from every
direction and from various dis
tances, some of them travelling 4
hundred miles or more 10 secure a
few days or weeks work. Almost
every farmer or woodsman living
anywhere in the region of the
marshes turns out with his entire
family: and the families of all the
laboring men and mechanics of the
surrounding towns and cities join in
the general hegira to the bogs, and
help to harvest the fruit. Those
living within few miles 90 out in
the morning and return home at
night, taking their monday meal
with them, while those from dis
tance take provisions and bedding
with them and camp in the build
ings provided for that purpose by
the marsh owners; doing their own
cooking on the stoves and with the
fuel furnished them.
The wages vary from fifty cents
to a dollar bushel, owing to the
abundance or scarcity of the fruit
| A good picker will gather from three
to four bushels q day where the
yield is light, and five or six bush
els where it is good. The most mon
ey is made by families numbering
from half dozen to dozen mem
bers. Every chick and child in
such families over six years old is
required to turn out and help swell
the revenue of the little household,
and the frugal father often pockets
ten to twenty dollars day as the
fruits of the combined labors. The
pickers wade into the grass, weeds
and vines, however wet with dew or
rain, or however deeply flooded un-
derneath; making not the slightest
effort to keep even their feet dry,
and after an hours work in the
morning are almost as wet as if they
had swum river. Many of them
wade in barefooted, others wearing
low cowhidc shoes, and their feet, ~
least, are necessarily wet all day
long. In many cases their bodies
are thinly clad and they must inevi-
tably suffer in frosty mornings and
evenings and on the raw, cold, rainy
days that are frequent in the au-
tumn months in this latitude; yet
they 90 about their work singing,
shouting and jabbering rs merrily
as party of comfortably clad
school children at play. How any
of them avoid colds, rheumatism
and a dozen other diseases, is 4
mystery; and yet it is rarely that
one of them is i'll from the effects of
this exposure. AS many as 5000
or 1000 pickers are sometimes en-
ployed on single marsh when there
is heavy crop, and an army of
such ragamuflins as get together for
this purpose, scattered over a bog in
confusion and disorder. presents a
strange and picturesque appearance.
Indians are not usually as good
pickers as white people, hut in the
sparsely settled districts, where
many of the berry farms are situa-
ted, it is impossible to get white help
enough to take care of the crop in
the short time available for the
work, and owners are compelled to
employ the aborigines. A rake,
with the prongs shaped like
the letter V, is used for pick
ing in some cases, but owing to the
large amount of grass and weeds
that grow among the vines
on these wild marshes, this instru
ment is rarely available. After be-
inc picked the berries are stored in
warehouses for q period varying from
one to three weeks. They are
washed and dried by being passed
through fanning-mill made for the
purpose, and arc then allowed to cure
and ripcn thoroughly before they are
shipped to market.
From statistics gathered by the
American Cranberry Growers Asso-
citation it is learned that in 1888
Wisconsin produced 135,507 bush
els; in 1884, 24,7S3; in 1885, 264, ,432
bushels; and in 1886, 70.6S6 bushels
By these figures it will be seen that
the yield is very irregular. This is
| ,,,.;...;nnll,, 70 tho fnnt thnt